Condominium sales in Cambridge have surged 33 percent compared to last year. A renovated two-bedroom, two-bath condo at this Victorian on Hancock Street is listed for $699,000.

At a time when condo sales in many Bay State communities are floundering, the condominium market in Cambridge is soaring.

Cambridge condo sales have jumped 33 percent, while prices remain steady. The city’s single-family home market, however, hasn’t held up as well. Single-family home prices dipped 16 percent while sales were flat.

Cambridge’s housing market has historically been flush with buyers relocating to work at the city’s universities and biotechnology and tech companies, according to local brokers.

“What I’ve been struck by is how much stronger Cambridge seems than everywhere else I’ve been reading about,” said Fred Meyer, owner of University Real Estate in Harvard Square.

A total of 700 condos were sold through mid-August, up from 526 during the same months last year, according to statistics provided by the MLS Property Information Network. The median selling price climbed to $426,000, a 1.4 percent increase from the $420,000 median price recorded a year earlier.

During the same period, 86 single-family homes traded, compared to 88 through mid-August 2006, and the median price tumbled to $700,000 from $920,000.

“I think the thing to keep in mind is that we had a huge run-up in prices,” said Davis Rowley, sales manager of the Cambridge and Belmont offices of Hammond Residential GMAC. The steep price appreciation was “unrealistic” and prices have leveled, he added.

Increases in median home prices have ranged from 7.2 percent to 13.8 percent from 2000 to 2003, according to statistics from The Warren Group, parent company of Banker & Tradesman. The median price dipped 2.4 percent in 2004 to $615,000 from $630,000 in 2003. But then it surged to $717,500 in 2005, a 16.7 percent increase from the prior year, before climbing another 5.6 percent to reach $758,000 last year.

Meyer, of University Real Estate, said this year’s lower median price could be because some higher-end purchasers may be holding back given the turmoil in the credit and stock markets.

Fewer $1 million-plus single-family homes have been sold so far this year than last year. A total of 39 single-family homes priced $1 million or higher, including one property in the $5 million-plus range, were sold from January through mid-August 2006, according to MLS PIN. This year, 30 homes fetched $1 million or more.

‘Pent-Up Demand’

Local brokers also say that sellers, having noticed the market changes, lowered their expectations and reduced asking prices to draw offers.

That strategy may be helping, because Cambridge condo sellers have been fetching 96 percent of the original asking price, according to MLS PIN. That number is up from 95 percent a year ago. Single-family home sellers have been getting 94 percent of the original list price, up from 89 percent in 2006.

Meyer, however, said he doesn’t believe that’s an indication of market strength. “It’s more likely an indication, in my judgment, that sellers are more reasonable in setting asking price,” he noted.

Cambridge broker John Angier agrees that sellers were adjusting prices to reflect the market. “Prior to this market, I think people were thinking 2004 prices,” said Angier, who manages the Cambridge and Somerville offices of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. “They got re-educated and those people who were really serious … were willing to sell their properties at a deeper price cut.”

At the same time, buyers appear to be more confident, according to Meyer. “They’re not scared to do what’s normal,” he said.

Angier said condo sales may have jumped because many buyers, originally scared off by all the news reports of a slowing market, have now re-emerged.

“I think there was some pent-up demand. People didn’t buy and now they’re coming back,” said Angier.

Still, Meyer acknowledged that buyers are cautious. “I don’t see many people coming in and saying, ‘I’m here for a two-year [master’s] program; can I or should I buy?'” he said.

Instead, he is seeing buyers who are planning to stay in Cambridge for longer periods.

“I often say to people this is not a soft market and it’s not an abnormal market,” Meyer said. “This is a normal market.”

One of the biggest changes in Cambridge’s market is that the number of homes listed for sale has fallen dramatically. There were 322 condos on the market as of last week, far fewer than the 462 listed a year ago, and only 43 single-family homes on sale, compared to 72 during the same week in 2006, according to Rowley.

Rowley said his office has a pool of buyers who are waiting to find the right property. “There’s not enough supply for them to choose from,” he said.

At the current sales pace, the residential real estate market is tracking closer to 2005, which was stronger than last year’s market, according to Rowley. Some 1,413 condos and single-family homes were sold in 2005, compared to 1,237 last year, according to The Warren Group.

“The pace of the market is quicker,” said Rowley, noting that the time between when an offer is accepted and closing date has shortened.

Meyer noted that over the long term, buying a home is typically more advantageous than renting for most people.

“Over the long term, it’s a no-brainer to own. But you just never know what the short term is going to be and that’s always been true,” he said.

For now, Meyer opined, it’s a good time to buy. “If anything, the uneasiness in the stock market makes people turn back to real estate,” he said. “There’s something comfortable about hard assets.”